Reflections from AHIP 2025 by Sasha Khan, VP of Marketing at b.well
I’ve attended several AHIP conferences over the years. I’ve sat through the big industry gatherings—HLTH, ViVE, HIMSS—and year after year, I hear new buzzwords but the same messages. The future of healthcare. The promise of digital transformation. The need for innovation. The power of personalization, and the list goes on.
We discuss the future as if it were something we can plan for on a whiteboard. Something just out of reach, if only we build the right roadmap. But for millions of people, including the version of me growing up on Medicaid, access to care isn’t something you wait for.
I was raised in a system that provided my family and me with coverage, but not easy access. We had a paper copy of the Medicaid provider directory, but it was outdated and often wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I am and will always be immensely grateful for the coverage we did have. It was a lifeline and I am forever thankful for it.
However, finding a doctor who actually accepted Medicaid felt like solving a used jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing. When we did find someone, appointments were often weeks or months away. So we did what many families in our situation do: we relied on the emergency room. Not because we wanted to, but because it was the only place we could go and be seen right away. Sure, we’d sit in the waiting room for hours, sometimes into the evening, but waiting overnight felt like a better option than waiting weeks.
At the time, as a teenager, I didn’t know that an ER visit cost 12 times more than a visit to a primary care doctor. We didn’t know we were contributing to avoidable system costs or overburdening emergency departments. We just knew we were sick, and afraid, and couldn’t wait.
That experience is why I’m in healthcare today.
30 Years Later, the System Still Misses the Moment
Today, I live in Phoenix. I have private insurance. I live a few miles from a major hospital system. And yet, when I recently tried to schedule a routine OBGYN appointment, I couldn’t do it online. The system didn’t work. The digital interface wouldn’t allow me to book the visit, despite being an established patient. There was no fallback form, no chatbot, no asynchronous help. And to make matters worse, I didn’t know why—there was no explanation.
So I called. After 20 minutes on the phone with a call center representative (who was very nice, but I knew how much the call was costing the system), I finally got on the schedule. The appointment was four weeks out.
On the day of my appointment, I opened the Waymo app—Alphabet’s autonomous ride service. In under two minutes, I authenticated, uploaded my payment info, and scheduled a self-driving car to pick me up for a doctor’s appointment I wasn’t able to schedule online.
This is the experience gap between everyday consumer life and healthcare, and it is extreme. If you don’t think it is, then think of it this way, it’s like the gap between carrying around a paper map and using GPS on your phone.
That’s what made AHIP 2025 feel so different. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t hear conversations about someday. I heard conversations about right now—about the systems that are failing, the friction that’s being felt, and the responsibilities each of us carries, whether we’re building products, leading organizations, or shaping policy.
One session in particular stood out. Titled “Building a More Sustainable Health Care Future,” it brought together leaders from an integrated delivery network (IDN), a hospital system, a Medicare Advantage plan, and a healthcare technology platform. What made the session remarkable wasn’t just who was on stage, but what they said. No sugarcoating. No stalling. Just real talk about the structural problems we face and the actions that can no longer wait.
These were some of the quotes that stuck with me and the themes that brought AHIP 2025 together.
“We are data-rich and insight-poor.”
Billions have been invested in data infrastructure—EHRs, HIEs, APIs, FHIR—but the daily experience of patients and providers hasn’t changed fast enough. Clinicians still operate with partial information. Payers still rely on fragmented data to manage populations. Consumers continue to struggle with accessing and interpreting their own health information.
We don’t have a data problem. We have a data access and usability problem. The systems we’ve built may technically comply with regulations, but they don’t meet people where they are. Until insights are delivered at the point of decision—whether that’s at the bedside, in a call center, or on a smartphone—we’re not closing the gap.
“The great unlock is partnerships and shared-risk models.”
One panelist emphasized that value-based care can’t live in pilot projects anymore. It needs to be built into the foundation of how we pay for and deliver care. But what stood out was how this idea extended beyond payment reform.
A hospital system leader described their role as an anchor institution. Rather than invest in yet another technology pilot, they helped fund a local commercial laundry facility in one of the most under-resourced zip codes in their city. It created jobs, improved community health, and kept healthcare dollars circulating locally, while also reducing the system’s own operating costs.
That’s the kind of thinking we need more of: cross-sector partnerships, long-term investments, and shared accountability across communities, not just contracts.
“AI can help, but it needs guardrails, not hype.”
AI wasn’t treated as a savior; it was treated as a tool, and that was refreshing.
Several panelists shared how their organizations are using AI in targeted ways to: reduce documentation burden, extract insights from radiology, and support triage and risk identification. One organization has embedded AI into its operations for over a decade, not because it was trendy, but because it helped clinicians intervene earlier and manage patients more effectively.
The takeaway is that AI should reduce noise, not create more of it. For adoption to scale, solutions need to be safe, human-centered, and clearly valuable to both clinical teams and operational leadership.
“We spend five times more on admin costs than any other wealthy nation.”
This statistic was repeated in several sessions, and no one challenged it because it’s true.
From duplicated forms to manual documentation to disconnected systems, administrative bloat is killing efficiency, draining resources, and burning out staff. It’s also a major contributor to poor patient experience. When healthcare still requires you to fax, call, repeat yourself, and wait on hold, it’s no wonder that people feel frustrated and disengaged.
The biggest opportunity in digital health isn’t another consumer-facing app. It’s taking friction out of the system behind the scenes and at the front door.
“Trust is the currency.”
The scrutiny around Medicare Advantage was present in almost every conversation at AHIP 2025. Between policy audits, risk adjustment reform, and increased oversight, MA plans are being held to a new level of accountability.
One speaker emphasized that trust,not technology or benefits, is what retains members. People want to keep their doctor. They want clear answers. They want to feel like someone is on their side. Plans that continue to disrupt care continuity, deny claims arbitrarily, or make their processes opaque will lose ground.
The ones that succeed will do so by creating stability in a system that feels increasingly unstable.
So What Now After AHIP 2025?
We’ve digitized healthcare. But we haven’t reimagined it. Not yet.
AHIP 2025 made it clear: we’re out of time for more white papers and vision decks. The expectations are higher now. The pressure is on. And consumers are no longer willing to wait.
The infrastructure is here. The policy tailwinds are real. The money is being spent. The question is: will we follow through?
“If you’re saying someone should do something about this… be that someone.”
That quote stayed with me because I was that kid in the ER, and thirty years later, I’m still running into the same walls—just dressed up in digital wrappers.
Now I work in this industry. I know how these systems are built. I know how they break. And I know what it means when they fail the people they were supposed to protect.
The pressure is real. But so is the opportunity.
Let’s not waste it.
